The invention accommodates to a molding machine of the automatic type wherein a split mold, defining one or more mold cavities, includes a stationary mold half and a movable mold half reciprocable relative thereto between opened and closed positions.
In such a machine, the article or articles molded in an operational cycle are usually discharged from the movable mold portion as the latter moves toward the withdrawn or opened position, normally with the aid of one or more ejector rods or pins projectible into each cavity of the receding mold portion so as to dislodge the respective article or workpiece therefrom. The article then usually falls between the mold portions, usually by now approaching each other during the next following closure stroke, into a suitable receptacle therebelow.
With molding machines operating at ever-increasing speeds, such an ejection system is no longer satisfactory since the released article may not properly clear the path of the reciprocating mold portion. Attempts have been made to provide means for positively removing all the workpieces from the mold in its opened state, thus to prevent them from being crushed between the mold portions and from interferring with mold reclosure. Prior systems, however, could not always be fully synchronized with the mold cycle and, for this reason, were not wholly dependable in their operation. Furthermore, even when articles or workpieces were positively removed, they were generally dropped randomly into a receptacle and had to be handled anew for stacking or packing purposes.